The poor working conditions of the maritime profession have a negative impact on the physical and mental health of seafarers. The result of this causes a shortage of qualified seafarers. Many studies in the literature propose a high-paying employment strategy to overcome this shortage. However, only higher salaries cannot guarantee decent work conditions; other basic governing principles and rights within the working life have critical roles also. In this context, solely evaluating the effects of salary would fail to completely identify the underlying problem and prevent generalization of the study results to all seafarers. In this study, the dimensions of the Decent Work Scale (DWS) were included to examine the problem in a comprehensive manner. This was coupled by examination of the effects of the adequate compensation (AC) attitudes of the participating seafarers, all of whom were qualified according to the requirements of the flag state and working on merchant ships, on their decent work perceptions. The results indicated that the seafarers’ AC attitudes had an impact on their perceptions of some dimensions of DWS as safe conditions, access to healthcare, rest periods, and value.